Talk about affordable housing.

You do not actually need any income if they have high enough income to afford their bills plus your new house.

We have talked about things such as rent by the room and acknowledge that the operating model will likely be very different while living in the property vs. when we move out.I think the point you made about assumable loans is very helpful to get into a property you might not otherwise be able to afford.

The situation you are ultimately trying to avoid is the one where: the borrower defaults, you start foreclosure, the borrower fights the foreclosure and says they didn't understand the loan / could never afford to pay it / you didn't follow the consumer rules, etc, then the judge asks if you followed those rules and you can't show that.... 

I saw many highly successful hard working people lose money to them as well as people who couldn't afford it.

As prices increase, fewer people can afford to buy homes, forcing them to rent.

Personal Property coverage- furniture, lawnmowers, signage, etc. 

The problem is you can't afford to properly make repairs when you are dealing with the lower tier properties and go with the cheapest bids doing nothing but putting duct tape on issues that will become recurring or believing you are making the repairs correctly but use inferior labor and materials because its all the property can absorb cost wise.  

Currently situated in San Diego and can only afford rent for now because house prices in SoCal are bonkers.

There are circumstances that having a low downpayment is beneficial, but personally, I'm not a fan of PMI if you can afford the 20%.